Tennessee Titans Team History

During the 1998 season, Adams announced that in response to fan requests, he was changing the Oilers’ name to coincide with the opening of their new stadium and to better connect with Nashville. He also declared that the renamed team would retain the Oilers’ heritage (including team records), as had all other relocated teams except the Browns/Ravens, and that there would be a Hall of Fame honoring the greatest players from both eras.

Adams appointed an advisory committee to decide on a new name. He let it be known that the new name should reflect power, strength, leadership and other heroic qualities. On December 22, Adams announced that the Oilers would be known as the Tennessee Titans starting in 1999. The new name met all of Adams’ requirements, and also served as a nod to Nashville’s nickname of “The Athens of the South” (for its large number of higher-learning institutions, Classical architecture, and its full scale replica of the Parthenon).

The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville, Tennessee. The Titans compete in the National Football League as a member club of the American Football Conference, South division. Previously known as the Houston Oilers, the team began play in 1960 in Houston, Texas, as a charter member of the American Football League. The Oilers won the first two AFL Championships, and joined the NFL as part of the AFL - NFL merger in 1970.

The team relocated from Houston to Tennessee in 1997, and played at the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium in Memphis for one season. The club moved to Nashville in 1998 and played in Vanderbilt Stadium. For those two years, the team was known as the “Tennessee Oilers”, but changed its name to “Titans” in 1999. The team plays at Nissan Stadium in Nashville, which opened in 1999 as Adelphia Coliseum. The Titans’ training facility is at Saint Thomas Sports Park, a 31-acre site at the MetroCenter complex in Nashville.

Established1960

CityHouston -Nashville

League History1970 - Present / National Football League1960 - 1969 / American Football League

NicknameTitans- After two seasons as the Tennessee Oilers, owner Bud Adams announces the team will change its nickname to the Titans. Titans was chosen over nicknames such as Tornadoes, Copperheads, South Stars, and Wranglers. The committee choose Titans citing the desire to have a nickname that reflected “strength, leadership and other heroic qualities.” “Titans come from early Greek mythology and the fact that Nashville is known as the ‘Athens of the South’ makes the Titans name very appropriate,” Adams said.